Ride Summary: Water Gap 600 & New Holland 200

Results will be submitted to RUSA in a few days and will become final upon ACP certification.

After a season of below average temperatures and generally bad weather for our SR events, the weather cleared for the final leg of the PA ACP SR series. Riders enjoyed sunny and dry conditions. that was the good news. The weekend also ushered in the first official heatwave of 2017 pushing temperatures toward 90F and beyond. That was the cost for beautiful skies.

Eleven of the thirteen riders who clipped in for the Water Gap 600k managed two returns to the hostel within time limits. More impressive is that of the eleven, nine are now Eastern PA Super Randonneurs. Congratulations to CJ, Arayata, Jimmy Asparas, James Haddad, Guy Harris, Greg Keenan, Rudi Mayr, Bill Olsen, Bob Torres, and Aleksey Vishnyakov for this significant accomplishment. There are no cakewalks in the Eastern PA brevet series.

First finisher Sean Connelly blazed around the course in his usual fashion, trimming over 2 hours from Don Jagel's long-standing record. His secret is not just speed, but efficiency. He arrived at the overnight control just after 8:30 pm on Saturday, ate, freshened up, and was headed toward New Holland by 9:15.

Favorite quote came from Jimmy Asparas who finished his first 600k and thus first SR this weekend. When asked at the finish about his experience on his first 600, he could only muster the words, "pretty brutal," and headed off for a shower.

The well-oiled organizer crew of Bill Olsen and Guy Harris managed a just-in-time course checkout ride Thursday and Friday before the brevet which necessitated some creative route adjustments to the 600 Day 1 route and a complete cue update for the 600 Day 2/200k route. The fact that these two got a mere 2 hours of sleep Thursday night, managed to get the riders fed and started at 4am on Saturday, feed all the riders Sunday morning, and cover the finish (which spanned from 6:30am to 7:30pm on Sunday) is truly incredible and shows their dedication to maintaining quality brevets. Making it all work, Chris Nadovich, after having spent the entire week in his kayak on the Schuylkill River, made the grocery run and opened the hostel Friday night while Guy & Bill got some sleep.

Special appreciation goes to Len Zawodniak for knowing the 600k route so well that he could locate the secret control just where riders needed him the most. Most credited Len for their being able to finish the first leg.

As Sunday dawned and some 600k riders were still making their way back to the hostel, nine additional riders showed up for the New Holland 200k which is the Day 2 route for the 600k as well. All nine 200k riders finished for a 100% completion rate. This format provides an interesting opportunity an intermingling of riders. Being among the "fresh" riders, I can say with confidence that the 600k riders are a strong bunch. There were more than a few times when I was pushing my own limits to keep a 600k rider within sight. Topping it all off, Steve Kraybill joined the ranks of randonneurs as he finished his first brevet.

We will give the hostel a rest for awhile and resume the monthly R-12 brevet series beginning July 22 with Hawk's Nest. Registration details will be posted once we recover from this past weekend.

Andrew Mead
Eastern PA RBA

From the riders:

Nigel Greene: Thanks again to you, Len, Bill and Guy, for putting on this event. I enjoyed the route and especially like how the format allows for interaction between the two different rides and the riders. Looking forward to doing the full 600 again at some point in the future.

You will find Nigel's own report on his blog, Iron Rider. Always interesting reading there.

Jimmy Asparas also completed his first 600k and thus conquers the SR with the prestigious Eastern PA SR. He writes:

I want to give a big shoutout to all of the volunteers for the 600k; you, Bill, Guy, Len, Chris, hope I didn't forget anyone. I'm always impressed that our core group is always willing to devote so much time.This was my first 600 and the hardest ride I've ever done. I felt that the whole leg after the Snydersville diner was the hardest of the first 400k. Just a constant uphill struggle into the controle. I welcomed the company of Greg, Rudi, Bob, and Mario at the Exxon controle, and we rode together most of the rest of the day and night. The unusually hot weather made for a very difficult day. The heat completely stole away my energy during the day, and then on the way from Bloomsbury to the hostel, saddle sores stole my ability to ride in the saddle comfortably.It had initially been my plan to ride through the night to take advantage of the cool weather and calm winds, but as is often the case with this kind of riding, plans didn't sync up with reality. I dozed off at the hostel for a few minutes - not really sure how long - until the 200k crew came in. The demons in my head made me briefly entertain abandoning the ride in light of the saddle sores, but I collected myself and rolled out with CJ shortly after the 200k riders. It was a rough ride, especially the 27 mile stretch on Route 23, which in retrospect was the most difficult part of the entire 600k to me.The best view hands down as always was the Delaware River from Hawk's Nest. I'm looking forward to it again on next month's "short" ride.Congratulations to everyone who tried and/or completed this ride; it wasn't easy for any of them!ThanksJimmy

CJ Arayata has posted his photo album for the 400 and 600 brevets here.

3 comments:

I had fun participating in the 200k. I find I enjoy reading the ride recaps on this blog, too. I saw a few things in the recap that didn't ring true to me. RUSA records indicate that CJ has completed an ePA 600k previously and became an SR last year. However, this year he earned the PA Honor Roll for completing another SR. Also, Sean earned the PA Honor Roll for completing the SR series. This is something that is not reflected on the preliminary results sheet nor the write up. Ten out of the eleven finishers made the honor roll - 5 of them are first time inductees: Arayata, Aspras, Connelly, Mayr, and Vishnyakov. That's a pretty big number in one year. Congratulations to all!

Oops! What is the rule regarding completion of a Super Randonneur series? Do all four rides have to be ACPB's to make the ePA honor roll? Maybe I misspoke that Sean has already made the honor roll? His 200k ride this year was a RUSA-B event run by ePA.

Many thanks to you Andrew and all volunteers: Chris, Guy and Bill, and of course to Len Z! Not just water and bananas (or even ice cream) but he had a spare seatpost!! Fortunately, I did not need one this time :-)